The wind blew softly into the spacious bedroom. It gracefully touched everything in the room one at a time, finally catching a few papers from the massive pile that sat on an overly large marble desk. They twirled, almost as if they were in slow motion, and the sunlight managed to catch the papers in a soft, yet blinding glow.

A soft sigh was heard before a dainty figure reached down and wearily picked up the papers that had fallen to the floor. After carefully placing them back on their pile, the figure rose from her seat and quickly closed the window. She rubbed her arms to warm herself despite the warm weather that day and allowed her mind to wander. What was he doing today? Was he in some dangerous battle? Was he thinking of her at that exact moment? Was he hurt? She shook her head quickly, knowing that if something had happened to him, she would have felt it. The connection they had was practically indescribable. She could feel his presence and he could feel hers no matter the distance. It was as if their minds were entwined, as if they had twin souls.

She laughed despite her situation as she remembered the last time she had seen him. He had disguised himself as a handmaiden of all things, and got clearance to enter her chambers using a 'Jedi mind trick'. She had laughed harder than she had in a very long time, but that laughter was quickly silenced. They had had a lot of lost time to make up for. She smiled faintly at the memory of their last meeting. Had it really been three months since she had seen him? Time seemed to move so slowly when you had nothing to do but sit and wait. Wait for good news. Wait for bad news. But then again, no news could be good news. But she needed to know. She needed to know where he was, what he was going, when he would come home to her.

Her hand clasped the jappor snippet around her neck as she absentmindedly watched the speeders whiz by her chambers. She wondered if the holo-news was on, but realized almost immediately that she had just checked minutes before. No news.

Sighing yet again, she slowly walked back to her desk, after much self-coaxing, she resigned herself back to her mound of paperwork. At least she was staying busy. The last thing she needed right now was free time. Free time was torture incarnate for her. She needed to be occupied so she wasn't preoccupied with worry for him. Besides, he didn't want her to worry about him anyway.

"Milady?'

She looked up from her work briefly and smiled quickly at the sight of Sabe. It was always a relief to see her, especially when she had work to do.

"Yes, Sabe?"

"Your presence has been requested for an emergency meeting in the Senate."

Her brow furrowed with worry immediately. "Do you know what happened?"

"No, they didn't tell me anything. Just that you're needed."

She quickly nodded and left the room, the pile of paperwork left forgotten on her desk.

"Anakin! Get down!"

Anakin quickly darted to the floor, a flood of blaster fire barely missing him. His eyes followed his Master's movements, and he rolled himself behind a boulder for more cover.

"Master, I told you this was a bad idea!"

Obi-Wan cast an annoyed glance to his padawan before blocking the blow of his attacker.

"You know, Anakin, some assistance would be nice."

"Right."

With that, Anakin rolled out from behind his cover and immediately began deflecting blaster fire from his attackers. Before either of them could realize their predicament, they found themselves quickly surrounded and tiring at a rapid pace.

"Master, I don't know how much longer we can hold them!"

Obi-Wan gritted his teeth and gripped his light saber more firmly. Suddenly, an attacker swiped to the side, catching Obi-Wan in his left leg. He cried out and fell backwards, almost knocking Anakin over in the process.

"Master!"

Anakin swiftly caught Obi-Wan before he fell. Without realizing, he had just made himself and his Master completely vulnerable to attacks. Their attacks wasted no time and immediately began closing in.

By some miracle, Republic star-fighters zoomed down and began blasting at the Separatist attackers closing in on Anakin and Obi-Wan. Anakin quickly used the grace period to drag an ailing Obi-Wan into an abandoned home, and immediately began searching for something to stop Obi-Wan's leg from bleeding.

"Anakin, we can't stay here."

"I know, Master, but I have to stop the bleeding in your leg. You can't go on if I don't. And I'm not leaving you here."

They exchanged a brief smile before Anakin continued his search for some kind of medical aid. At that exact moment, a loud rumble was heard from overhead. In unison, Anakin and Obi-Wan looked hesitantly at the ceiling of their newfound shelter and within seconds, the ceiling crashed on top of them.

"Senator Amidala, the decision cannot be held off any longer. We need you to cast your vote."

Padme shook her head furiously. "No, no. I need more time. I need to think this through."

"Senator…"

"No, you cannot ask me to make such a drastic decision in such short notice. At least give me a couple of hours, even one hour to consider all of our options."

"Senator, we need you to cast your vote."

Padme sighed deeply and rubbed her aching forehead. She could feel a massive migraine coming on and having to make such a rash decision was not making it better.

"Senator…"

Suddenly, everything and everyone in the room faded out and all she could hear was Anakin. He was yelling something, she didn't know what but she was sure it was directed at Obi-Wan. She heard blaster fire and saw smoke and dust swirl around her. She could only watch in horror as attackers encircled Anakin. Everything she saw seemed to be in slow motion, Anakin was dragging Obi-Wan somewhere now, they were in some kind of house. Without warning, the house collapsed on top of her husband and she heard herself screaming as she ran from the room.

"Milady?"

Sabe gently shook a sobbing Padme and then began to rub her back soothingly.

"Something happened to him, Sabe. Something awful. What if he's hurt? What if he's dead?"

"No, no. He can't be. You've said so many times that you could always feel him. Wouldn't you have felt it if he was…well…"

"I know, I know. But something happened. Something bad. I know it. I just know it. I saw it, Sabe. The entire battle, everything. Then something collapsed on top of him, a house, I think. Sabe, I have a horrible feeling…"

"Stop, just stop. It's not doing any good worrying like this when we don't know exactly what happened if anything even happened. Come on, let's see what's on the holo-news."

Padme nodded, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and sat up. The holo-news flipped on and revealed what she had known along and Padme felt herself falling backwards before everything went black.

Obi-Wan's eyes opened slowly and he groaned as he pushed himself up from under the debris. Within moments, he realized to his horror that Anakin wasn't with him. Despite the pain in his leg, he began frantically searching under pile after pile of the fallen walls, screaming for his padawan. Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit him and he fell back into the rubble, unconscious.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.